Life
Yorkshire pudding
My mother, a Yorkshire woman, would occasionally take shortcuts in the kitchen, but not when it came to a roast,…
Fat of the land
Lady Bamford’s Cotswold fairy-land Daylesford Farm has sprouted leaves. It is no longer a farm shop, which should be a…
Man of the moment – or not
What’s not to love about David de Gea? Manchester United’s goalkeeper might appear to have it all: a humongous salary,…
My blue tick humiliation
I was one of the first people to take up Elon Musk’s offer to purchase a blue tick, the Twitter…
Triple time
In Competition No. 3296, you were invited to provide a poem whose rhyme words are all at least three syllables.…
Real life
After a day’s house-hunting in West Cork, I texted the builder boyfriend to say that we were too late. The…
Low life
Monday morning. In comes Frank. Frank is a carer in his late fifties. He comes daily to wash me. Still…
High life
New York The most likely place to be injured, or even killed, in the Bagel is the sidewalk, any sidewalk,…
Aussie life
‘Where did all the poof readers go?’ is not a question which would make it into many Australian publications. I…
Language
‘White guilt’ is one of the concepts lying behind the proposed Indigenous Voice. When Prime Minister Albanese announced he had…
Distilled wisdom
It was a perfect setting for a spring day, next to a 15th-century barn. Other walls and buildings had clearly…
Sleeping on the enemy
Last month in a Swiss hotel, I came across an idea so beautifully simple that I felt it would be…
Back to the weighing scales
As another summer approaches, I’ve embarked on yet another attempt to lose weight. You’d have thought I’d have learnt my…
Solution to 2598: By any other name
The unclued lights are the former and current names of various products: 2/8A, 12/36, 16/32, 17/34, 13/22. First prize David…
